Dirt Road

Dirt Road

This image of a dirt road in Monona County is actually a composite of 5 snap shots. I'm not the best at this, so it's pretty easy to tell- but it was still fun to try.

Has anybody seen my good friend Bobby?

Once again, I'm teaching middle school students about color, using oil pastels. This portrait of Robert Kennedy was made with only orange and blue (complementary colors) and black and white.

Check out these great links to social/political action Web sites

TrueMajority.org
From Jerry or Ben & Jerry's

AlterNet
Alternative News magazine with depth and insight

Change.org
The Internet way to get involved, sign petitions, write letters to public officials and media outlets.

Participant in political process

 The official website of my congressional district is using a graphic I designed for them. I may not be writing about politics in a regional weekly newspaper anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't contribute.   http://www.idp5.org

Sad but true

(click here to view)

Pat Bagley Salt Lake TribuneMar 25, 2010 EditorialCartoonists.com

March Maddness

Still working in watercolor, and this time ventured a little into gouache for this imitation of a Gustave Courbet self portrait. Thought this would actually be a good way to ease Painting students into Edvard Munch because it is so expressive.

Another great one

Small Vices by Robert B. Parker


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I won't go so far as to say that this was the all time best Spenser novel, but it may just be the quintessential Spenser novel- the best for readers who are already Spenser fans, chock full of just about every reoccurring character who's ever appeared in the series. A little like Jimmy Stewart in 'It's a Wonderful Life,' ol Spense finds out how many friends really care about him and how much when a high priced hit man puts him in a comma.

They're talking about making one of the books into a movie or reviving a TV series based on these books. My wife thinks Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson could play Spenser. It took me a while but I'm warming up to the idea. He's the right size and funny enough. Thing is, there will never be another Hawk besides Avery Brooks, who played him in the 80's TV show.


View all my reviews >>

Happy St. Pat's

I'll be honest with you, since I stopped writing my weekly column for the Mapleton PRESS, I've posted a whole lot more material on my cartooning blog and on my faith blog. I'm still kind of trying to figure out how to treat this "flagship" blog. More personal, more political, more humor? I really haven't had the discipline to write every week now that there's not the structure of a print deadline.

But, if you miss the print column, there's always "re-runs." I told you to do this for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and even for Arizona Statehood Day- so now, why not take a trip in the way-back machine and read some humor and history about Saint Patrick's Day. I even included a few recipes!

But first, a wee bit about my Irish pedigree. My wife's Dad (my "farmer-in-law) is part McCutcheon. My Dad always figured that Mallory was Irish, but much to his chagrin he found out we were (of all things) mostly ENGlish! Ah, but then there's me sainted Irish mother. She's a Reilly. No really. A Reilly? Really? Really.


Think you're Irish? With St. Patty's coming up, I thought I might share the story of my mother's family coat of arms.

Legend goes that our clan was in a war with another family over an island off the coast of Ireland. To settle the matter, both sides chose one champion to race in boats out to the aforementioned island. Whichever Irishman first laid hand on the beach, their clan won. Well, row as hard as he might, Reilly saw that he might not quite make it in time- so he cut off his own hand and threw it with his one remaining good won onto the beach- this winning the war.

Erin go braugh! Livin the life of Reilly.

"And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one of your body parts than to have your whole body go into hell."
~Matthew 5:30

Ah spring, when a young man's fancy turns to baseball...and blackmail?

Mortal Stakes by Robert B. Parker


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What's not to like? A Spenser mystery AND baseball. Parker does a great job of describing summertime in Boston that you can just about taste the peanuts and Crackerjack, red hots and beer.

What I really like about this book is the character development. I don't know that Parker ever tells us Spenser's first name or anything about his family or childhood. All we ever glean is that he once worked for the County DA's office and he served in Korea. But I don't think that it's a spoiler to say that in 'Mortal Stakes,' (the third Spenser book, c. 1975) you see Spenser really struggle with his sense of identity and his value system.

Parker introduces some reoccurring characters, and does a lot to define Spenser's relationships with others- like Boston Police Captain Martin Quirk or Spenser's long time love, Dr. Susan Silverman.

View all my reviews >>

Viktor Frankl

 

Here is an image taken from my own painting, but adjusted some in Photoshop, to create something perhaps a little cubust and a little surrealist. I tried to be as subtle as I could, so that it's not rediculously obvious that I monkeyed with it in Photoshop too much.

Here is a detail frm the original painting, revealing some of the brush work and layers of transparent color.

And here is the original watercolor painting of 20th century existentialist psychologist (he might say "logotherapist"), author, and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl. No, I didn't mean to make him look like the Hulk or an alien- I was simply using analogous colors (colors next to each other ont he color wheel), in this case, blue and green. Believe it or not, I used very little black, but tried to build up blacks from all the layers of blue and green.

Some quick religious/political comentary

IN POLITICAL NEWS

The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to "save the country from trending toward socialism."

The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”

The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18,

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33866.html#ixzz0hXhIFXx

It has been clear since 9/11 that fear has been a major GOP tactic.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." ~1 John 4:18


GAY MARRIAGE
Recently a student asked me to fill out a political survey for a story he was writing for the school newspaper. There weren't any questions about the deficit or Afghanistan, jobs or the economy. He did ask about health care and gay marriage.

Ordinarily I try to avoid forming opinions (let alone sharing them) on this issue, but that morning my devotion had been on Matthew 22. In  Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25 the Sadducees, a group of religious teachers who didn't believe in the resurrection and Heaven, challenged Jesus. The custom was that if a man died without any children, his brother was supposed to marry his widow and have children for him. The Sadducees gave Jesus a scenario where seven brothers all marrying and dying in turn. They asked Him who's wife she would be in Heaven. Jesus knows it's a trap and corrects them, "For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven."

This got me thinking- mind you, I am not condoning homosexuality or promoting gay marriage, but good grief, it seems to me that what Jesus is saying (in part) is that marriage is a temporal, human, perhaps even a civil institution, not necessarily something quite as perfect and Divinely ordained as many of us seem to think. Don't get me wrong, besides my salvation, I personally think that my wife and our marriage is one of the greatest things God has given me. I try thanking Him for Bethany every day. But if marriage is in fact, a covenant, a contract between two people, the 14th Amendment prohibits states from denying everyone equal treatment under the law.

I do not think that church bodies should be forced to perform, recognize or "bless" same-sex unions, however, marriage licenses are issued by the state, not churches. "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's" (Luke 20:25, Matt 22:21, Mark 12:17).

Both of these "mini-editorials" are probably enough for some people to want to burn me at the stake as a heretic- guess that's why I'm posting them here on my main blog instead of on my religious blog. Because pretty much no one ever reads this one anymore since I stopped writing a weekly column for my local newspaper. And because the other one is programmed to automatically post on facebook. And I don't feel like having to listen to the negative feedback. Guess I'm a coward. Sorry Gay people. I think you have rights, but I'm too much of a wuss to argue on your behalf. 

Purple Dog

I think I've finished up. It may or may not seem a little "cartoony," but that's okay, after all it's a school mascot costume for cripe's sake! If anything, I think it really has a Wayne Thiebaud Pop-Art feel to it, which is what I was going for. Thiebaud is one of my favorite painters and I've always wanted to do something like he would. Thiebaud was born in Arizona, like me, only 50 years before me. Unlike Roy Lichtenstein, Thiebaud actually started out as a cartoonist, working for Disney for a while.

The Pop-Art thing is perfect because it should be upbeat and fun, and the decorating style of the recipient is pretty clean and contemporary. My only hope is that a bright purple painting doesn't clash too much with whatever neutrals and eath tones he picked for his home. But then again it's a gift, he can hang it in his john or in his basement where no one else will see it if he wants to. I am seriously considering the poster thing. If not for a fundraiser, at least so that I can give the same image as a gift to a few other people- not to mention being able to keep a copy for myself- maybe in my classroom. NOW the only problem is waiting for it to dry, since it's oil.

Anatomy

Here are a couple of exercises in pencil, studying the skeleton.

Sateen Dura-Luxe

I created this series of images in Photoshop and named them after the volatile paint that wrecked the career of the Abstract Expressionist painter in Kurt Vonnegut's novel, 'Bluebeard.' Although, I think they are probably more influenced by Rene Magritte than Mark Rothko or Jackson Pollack. Great book, by the way, especially if you're the least bit interested in the New York School of painters.

Realism painted in broad strokes

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of course I'm gonna love this book. Not only is it one of Vonnegut's best, but it's about a cranky old artist who just wants to be alone! Actually, I had just finished teaching my Painting class about Abstract Expressionists of the New York School when I found this story about Rabo Karabekian, a fictitious friend of the likes of Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko. He grew up in a small town in central California, the son of poor Armenian immigrants, survivors of the Turkish genocide. He apprentices under a Norman Rockwell type character and serves in a special squad of camouflage artists in WWII, after which he becomes rich and famous but even more successful as an art collector than as an artist. The story of his life is inter weaved with the story of the summer that a woman novelist nags him into writing his autobiography. There's a lot of tension between the verbal and visual modes of thinking, between writing and painting and between the sexes too. Typical Vonnegut scathing satire of American society with occasional nods to the relationship of men to the memory of their fathers.

Funny, fast/easy reading, insightful and engaging.

This book isn't surreal or full of science fiction like many of his books. It's more like historical fiction, with some parts that are "screwball comedy" thrown in. As a middle-aged artist who never did achieve his dreams of making it big as a writer or professional cartoonist, I was really able to relate to it. 

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Bow wow in the AM

 

When I came in this morning the sun was behind this painting on it's little easel on my counter and it illuminated the under painting through the canvas (I painted over a flower that I never really finished). It really gave the whole thing a drastically different look- more red-violet than blue-violet. I'm not sure I'm ready to completely switch directions on the original, but I had to grab my camera and capture it. Amazing what a difference lighting makes.

Bow wow wow

Today I started a painting of our school mascot. Somebody asked me where I would end up hanging it when it's finished. Actually, I was thinking of giving it as a housewarming gift to a friend and former student. But it is turning out pretty well, so I may think about poster-size prints. How much would people pay?